WORLD Cup officials and French politicians now fear the tournament could descend into a fiasco because of ever-widening transport disruptions.
An embarrassed French President Jacques Chirac moved to speak for the first time on the ongoing Air France strike, called on both sides to ''show proof of their responsibility'' in the dispute as France prepares to become ''the host country of the planet''.
The opening game - Scotland v Brazil - kicks off next Wednesday, but a rash of strikes threaten to intensify the transport snarl-ups.
Yesterday, one Paris subway workers' union staged a partial strike; rail workers walked out in the southern Provence-Riviera region, and the Communist-led CGT union held protest marches in Paris.
Protests also embraced electrical and gas workers, hotel, department store and weapons plant staff, and other disputes threaten to paralyse train services this weekend.
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